...my 2557th piece of daily art! (I made more than that, but that is from my daily themed works!)

...just me being super-excited with the FINAL DAILY PIECE of 2018, year SEVEN!

Ya'll already know about that 'top nine' deal that is popular on social media, right?

Well, just 'cause I think it's fun, here's mine;

1) My work hanging at Slushbox Gallery in WPB, 2) Portraits of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims, my colleague Brent did the other half, 3) Finally meeting my she-ro, Cassie Stephens and hand-delivering the issue of Art Hive with her interview in it. 4-5 images from my #MissMatchyMatchyART series, I guess folks liked that one! 6) Some of the pieces that I included in my annual show with my colleague each spring at CGMS Gallery in downtown Lake Worth, 7) That's actually the first pic in a slide show of pics from my friend Sof's baby shower, I did Disney-themed watercolors for the decor, 8) One of my revisited #GirlTalkJLG pieces...I like this one but the series REALLY took off mid-month where I created portraits of my senior girls and past cheerleaders, and finally 9) This is one of the pieces from my #WeddingBellesJLG series where I did bridal illustrations for a month, loved that one!

And here is the 'top nine' for my classroom account, @studio2_110

It was nice to finish up my daily piece earlier in the day so I could just hang out with John and the kitties for NYE (after an AMAZING dinner with family!) Nothing too wild this year, Milky was ready to party buy Mackie fell asleep. Typical.

This is the first Christmas since we have been in Florida that John and I didn't go back home to NC for Christmas. Actually- it was probably the first Christmas EVER that we weren't home for the holidays. But...we wanted to do something different this year. So- we headed down to Key West! The goal was to relax somewhere warm- and we did!

...and ya'll know I had to keep up with my daily art- it was a vacation but I never take a vacation from creating so I made the pool my temporary studio. The hardest part was trying not to accidentally put my paint brush in my beverage...but I guess a little watercolor never hurt anyone.

​We knew that we would enjoy the trip but we didn't know just how much- it really was such a great vacation! Besides hanging by the pool we took the hotel shuttle every day downtown to Mallory Square and took in all the sights, and of course ate like crazy. Key West is just over a four hour drive for us so we definitely want to make the trip again, hopefully soon.

Here is the art I created over the duration of the trip;

The last night (Tuesday, aka Christmas Day) I realized that I was out of paper for the next day. My plan was to stop by Michael's once we got back in town but it was later than we thought and we were ready to get home so...didn't happen. Only problem is- I still had to make my art and I needed my paper (I like to use Bristol, vellum finish- and I am kinda picky about it). I remembered that I still had the piece that I had originally started with, I did that piece in Tampa at the hotel. It was an art fail. I didn't like it, then when I went to the Kusama show with John I was totally inspired to change the series from just a 'red dress' theme to add the dots for an homage to Kusama- so I redid my first piece but didn't toss it...thank goodness! It was tucked away in the back of my sketchbook- my only piece of paper left besides my finished pieces. So I gave that piece a 'makeover' to make it piece #360.

Pic before we hopped on the Brightline and began the journey down to Miami. Oh, and I LOVE THE BRIGHTLINE...and these fun #ShadesOfCulture courtesy of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

And it goes without saying that part of my weekend included making time for my ART. I am cursed with the inability to sleep in no matter how late the night before was...so yup, sunrise at the beach and working poolside was my on daily agenda.

South Beach morning...gorgeous!

Ya'll- we stayed in a REALY FANCY hotel. Like...it was fancy. The rooftop pool was probably my favorite spot for making art...and that was also where Jess and Angela threw an impromptu Art Hive party...with Pharrell playing down on the beach below. (that last part wasn't part of the Art Hive party but we still had the best view of the show!)

Coffee, art, pool and an ocean view. I could get used to this.

The hotel had THREE pools! I only made it to two of them, but this one had an infinity pool and I found a cool floating platform in the pool to sit on. Started the piece there and then finished it in the room on our balcony while Marcela did everyone's makeup.

​And of course... DIY accessories!

If you know me then you know that I LOVE JEWELRY AND ACCESSORIES! I love putting together looks...and for anything art-related I try to add a little more personalization by creating my own accessories if I have time- or even if I don't have time. (who needs sleep, right?) I wanted to make sure that I was helping to promote Art Hive Magazine the whole weekend so I created a series of earrings made from pages in past issues.

And that's it- that is my Art Basel round-up!

​​Thank you Jess and Angela for an AMAZING weekend in Miami for Art Basel 2018! It was a truly memorable weekend!

...and if you are late to the party, I LOVE Iris Apfel so much...like...total fan girl. So interviewing her was a DREAM.

I saw that she was going to be signing her new book at the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden so I grabbed my copy and a painting I made of her as Wonder Woman in my #WONDERfulWomanJLG series from November 2017 ...cause I wanted her to have it.

I had my first solo show five years ago today. I didn’t realize it was my first solo show until after I installed the work and went back to view it during the art walk in downtown Hollywood, FL. I had met Sally, the owner of SMASH beauty lounge maybe a month or two before in her shop, struck up a conversation about my art and, she looked at my work, liked it and she said I could display in her space. So I did. I created some paintings just for her place, separate from my daily art.

...and when I answered the call, she said, do what you love for December 2018'

So ya'll know what THAT means...​ FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS!

And while we're at it- throw in Yayoi Kusama!

Okay, so it wasn't quite that dramatic. See what happened was I wasn't 100% sure of what I wanted to end the year with. I knew I wanted to do something holiday related because, well...that's kinda my jam.

​For the past two years my December themes have had a fashion illustration influence because I really love anything having to do with fashion. So...holiday and fashion. I had that much figured out...but I wasn't 100% yet.

And then John and made some impromptu plans... We changed up an upcoming trip to the west coast of Florida to see my long time friend to include a trip to Tampa first to meet up with his friend...and I remembered that there was a Kusama installation there that I missed when I was out that way for FAEA conference so it all came together after that.

​I left the show knowing I wanted to revisit my #LadyInRedJLG theme from December 2016, but figured I would throw in some dots as an homage to Kusama. As for the visit with friends...the visit with Cole in Tampa didn't happen because of a strep throat outbreak (we are NOT 'bout that life!) but the visit with my girl Gin- that totally happened!

I finished up my November series. Overall I am happy with the group of work, the color story was consistent- monochromatic blue. I began the series colored pencil and realized by accident that the marker I was using wasn't water soluble...which ended up being a happy accident because it created a watercolor effect. Towards the middle of the month I began working with some mixed media, first by hand painting some paper flowers (day 16-17) and adding them to the colored pencil and marker drawings.

From there it was more mixed media. I started cutting out the angel bodies and adding them to different patterned paper backgrounds, later including additional layers of the fun papers.

I posted a giveaway on my Facebook art page to give the majority of the angels away. The theme for the giveaway is 'helpers' based on a quote I love from Fred Rogers;

For the giveaway I invited folks to nominate people that they consider to be 'helpers' either by their job or through their service to the community. I did something similar last November with my #WONDERfulWomenJLG series, with a spin off set of angels, and it really made me happy...so I did it again- except with my actual daily pieces :)